Artists From Branford, Cornwall, East Hartford, Hamden, West Haven, New Haven Participating

For Jeff Slomba of West Haven, the natural environment and pollution are so intertwined they have created a new normal. "We live in what we made. Human intervention has become the environment," Slomba said. "I find all kinds of stuff in the water. I always wonder if it is natural or man-made. Sometimes it's hard to tell."

Slomba's sculptures, now on view at the Gallery at Constitution Plaze in Hartford, combine natural shoreline images with man-made detritus. A huge conch shell has a boombox embedded inside. Two audio tapes are intertwined like lovebirds. A horseshoe crab has an MP3 player inside.

Most of his works are mounted on boxes resembling rotted shipping crates. "Commerce and ecology and transportation all are wrapped up in our existence," said Slomba, who also teaches art at Southern Connecticut State University. "This is what we've become."

The exhibit at the gallery, "Natural Selections," focuses on the work of six Connecticut artists with work inspired by nature and who have received the Artist Fellowship grant from the Connecticut Office of the Arts.

Michael Gatonska's work also merges two elements. In his case, it's trees and music. "Trees are omnipresent in everything you do," Gatonska, of East Hartford, said. Gatonska draws musical scores in the shapes of leaves, with prose poems embedded inside. All of the scores actually can be played.

"This is part of an ongoing project to create a group of graphically notated works in the shapes of all the tree types in the state of Connecticut," he said.

Other artists in the exhibit are Jennifer Davies of Branford, who creates fiber pieces evoking bubbles and webs, and names them after flamenco dances; Amelia de Neergaard of West Cornwall, who creates sculptures from twigs, metal grids and twist-ties; Suzan Schutan of Hamden, who uses tar roofing paper to depict oil-related topics; Joseph Smolinski of New Haven, who, like Slomba, explores human intervention in the landscape with watercolors with evocative names like "Had to Sell the Farm."

"NATURAL SELECTIONS" will be at Gallery at Constitution Plaza, on the second floor of One Constitution Plaza in Hartford, until July 3. On April 26, at 7 p.m., the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford will perform Gatonska's piece "Timberline" as part of the Hartford New Music Festival. Details: www.cultureandtourism.org and www.charteroakcenter.org.